Sertraline - Anxiety out of nowhere?

About a month ago I had a health scare and anxiety out of nowhere everyday since. Heart thumping, shaking, nerves, little sleep, starting depression. Had many med tests. Nothing appears off. Tried Celexa, bad response. Now Zoloft 25mg with Xanax to help. Wanna stick to it but side effects like increase in anxiety are hard. Positive responses and stories to encourage please. I was a very outgoing and confident person before this, having no true explanation as to why this happened makes it even harder. PS I am seeing a therapist now too...

Responses (3)

Hi KersDon't give up on the Zoloft. It takes awhile to kick in. 25 mg is a low dose. Your doctor will increase your dose gradually. I have used Zoloft in the past with very good results. It can really help with anxiety and depression. I am glad to hear that you are seeing a therapist too. It really helps to be able to talk to someone about how you are really feeling. I went through a similar experience 25 years ago and it did come out of nowhere. No explanation as to why it happened. I would venture to say that most of us in this group would say the same thing. It takes some time but you will make it through this and will feel much better in the near future. Keep me posted.

Thanks Misha6. The hardest part of the last 3 days on the med has been worrying about a bad reaction. Health anxiety sucks like that. I feel shakes and think "Seritonin Syndrome". Want to stay positive but probably over analyzing blood pressure and other numbers.

I hope it helps you. I have heard good things about it but I had a bad experience and stopped it. I felt like screaming, crying and felt like I was loosing my marvels but dumb me I did not take a xanax to help calm me down. Later on I found out from a girl I met on a support group she had the exact same reaction and her doctor told her, the the medication was the help with imbalance in the chemical in the brain or even hormonal, but if she reacted that way was because she has no imbalance whatsoever. Gave me a sence of relieve but then again I still have panic and need to find a way to get relieve. I just started on paxils hopefully I too get good results. Blessings! Best wishes.

Anxiety always appears out of nowhere or so we think. It may be that you have an imbalance in the brain somehow especially if you were diagnosed with general anxiety disorder. If you have been taking the Zoloft for less than three weeks... I would suggest you continue. However if within a month you find no relief... I would suggest another drug of choice. It is difficult to find the right medication for your specific body type and chemical make up but it is possible. Hang in there... you can do it... help is a pill away. You will get back to being yourself sooner than you think.

I see this is a bit of an older question, but how e are you feeling now? Any improvement? If so, and you stuck with it, how long did it the for the initial side effects to subdue? I took sertraline for a couple years and weaned myself off because I thought I was ready. Turns out I wasn't, so I just got back on yesterday. I've been feeling exceptionally anxious and I can't remember if I felt like this when I stated sertraline the first time but I would love to hear a general time period that this will last. I already had to call into work today, on Black Friday of all days (my manager is a bit irritated by it but is very understanding of my anxiety disorder, especially since he just recently experienced his first panic attack) , but I knew that in this state I would have not been able to handle it and I would have been a completely useless employee on a day like this.

It would have been wrong of me to get payed for sitting in the bathroom with an upset stomach. I really hope you're doing better now though! I know that when I was on it, I felt amazing. I had some side effects such as a lack of motivation, sleeping about 10 hours a day and night sweating particularly before my menstrual cycle. But none of that was even close to as bad as the anxiety I deal with every day.